The question also could be asked, do you really need a fax machine? Technically, the answer would be no. Rarely can you trace any business gain to your fax. It’s just something everyone feels they need to be in business nowadays.
Hard to believe, but facsimile machines didn’t come into widespread business use until the late 1980s. I wrote an article in 1987 about a mechanical contractor who realized great cost savings and productivity gains from these newfangled devices. Within a few years, our company bought one and so did just about everyone else I knew. Overnight delivery bills became a small fraction of what they used to be. The question, “Do you have a fax number?” got transformed into, “What’s your fax number?”